Hello, Minerva
by halffictionalprincess
Summary: Fifty years after the last time since they'd seen each other, memories of a long lost love come flooding back to Minerva.


_**A/n- This is written for Jasmine Venn, for the monthly fanfic exchange for August.**_

 _ **Disclaimer- As if…**_

 _ **Hello, Minerva**_

She'd given him all her love, she'd offered all that she was, all that she could be, what she hadn't realized was that she'd just handed her heart to someone who didn't have one of his own.

Minerva McGonagall stared at the man in front of her, her brain recognized hi m as the darkest wizard in history, a murderer, a tyrant. Her mind recognized him for the monster that he was.

But her heart could still very well identify the charming boy that she'd fallen in love with.

Despite the destruction around her, despite the fact that his forces were burning her home down, his army was killing the people she loved, she stood like a stone and it all disappeared.

Suddenly she wasn't seventy years old anymore; she was seventeen.

She was on that train station again, getting off the Hogwarts Express for the last time as a student. Her eyes full of dreams of the bright future but her cheeks stained by tears for her past. She stood waiting as the world passed her by, waiting for who she thought was the love of her life, waiting with her luggage in her hand and hope in her heart.

She waited because he hadn't been in her compartment, they couldn't afford the world knowing that the Gryffindor head girl had fallen for the Slytherin head boy.

But he never came.

She would realize a lot later that he'd never even given her a second thought as he walked out of that train, running towards his own dreams of world domination.

It would take her years to understand that she'd only been a means to an end for him, his window to the Gryffindor house, their strengths and their weaknesses. That she'd never meant as much to him as he'd meant to her.

She would realize that everything she thought she knew about him was a lie, that he wasn't the mysterious, charming, ambitious but kind boy that she'd fallen hopelessly for.

He was a cruel, capricious and harsh man who didn't love anyone but himself, and didn't fear anything but death.

She hadn't known that the person that she'd fallen for was already a murder at eighteen.

It had only been the day that she found out that Tom Riddle was Lord Voldemort.

Kings Cross Station faded, the trains turned to book shelves, and she wasn't seventeen anymore, she was forty seven. Now, the only time she ever wondered about her long lost love was just before she went to sleep, the only time the handsome face of that young man flashed across her eyes were the days she was two seventeen year old students hopelessly in love.

She now stood in Albus Dumbledore's office on a dark, stormy night and the battle of the crowds represented the state of her heart as the news of more deaths came from all over the country.

The forces of Voldemort were getting stronger, they were in a huge danger and they had no idea how to fight this war.

"Minerva," said Dumbledore, "I always prayed I never had to tell you this, always wished that it never came to this because I know what I'm about to say will break your heart,"

She frowned, wondering what her mentor was talking about, what would break her heart?

"Minerva, he who must not be named," he started and her heart sank, "there is something you should know about him. You know him, we both know him,"

"But, Sir," she interrupted, confused, "I don't know who he is, I've never even met him,"

"You have, Minerva, and dare I say that you've known him for years," he sighed sadly before he continued, "I'm afraid that he is no one other than Tom Riddle, he was your friend, I remember, during your years at Hogwarts, I'm-,"

He continued to speak but it fell on deaf years because the news that the boy she'd once loved could be one of the cruelest wizards in history had chilled her to her core.

A blast suddenly brought her back to the present and she looked at the battle raging around her, but her eyes sought out her enemy, her nemesis, her love.

His stormy green eyes had turned to red slits that reminded her of burning coals as fire died out in a fireplace. He looked nothing like the boy she'd adored, yet the way his lips curled just a bit when he looked at her, the flash of recognition before his wand rose to attack her, reminded her of the biggest mistake she'd ever made.

She raised her own wand, steeling herself for what could possibly be the last duel of her life, but she faltered when he whispered, "Hello, Minerva,"

Then he started to fire killing curses at her and she wondered if love was like this for everybody.

 _ **A/n- All reviews would be appreciated.**_


End file.
